Welcome to the year 2010!!!!

We had a very relaxing and easy going evening yesterday. But let’s skip sraight to business. As I was mentioning 2 days ago, I had a sea-creature based dinner in mind, and that’s what happened. Fantastic t’was. Tried a new receipe with a creature I had never cooked before. I decided to get some oysters first, and to folow them with an octopus dish. Oysters are always easy to prepare and very tasty with some horseradish (white wasabi) and 1 or 2 drops of Tabasco. Great!

Now, let’s move to the stew. I bought an octopus that was about 1 kg. Was already cleaned up, so that make life easier. I did check about 30 different receipes, as I ahd not much of an idea on how to cook the beast. I finally started over salivating when I read this guy in an Italian website. Here’s a translation and some easy instructions for you non-italian speacking friends:

Earthware Octopus Stew

You’ll need an octopus, rinsed and cut into bit-sized chunks. Beofre chopping it, I quickly brought it to a boil for about 1-2 minutes, let it cool down and tried to remove as much skin as plossible.

After that procedure, chop a red onion (on the big side), toss it into a pot (preferably clay), together with 3 table spoons of olive oil, 3 crushed garlic cloves and a bit of red hot chilli peppers (as much as you like). Let it golden on the fire for about 4-5 minutes.

Now, add the octopuss together with 4-5 diced tomatoes (Pachino preferably), about 60-100 g pitted black olives, and a glass of white wine. Bring the whole thing to the boil, then put on a lid, turn the ehat to low and cook for about 45′ (or until the beast is soft when pierced witha  fork).

Once it is ready, get four slices of home-style bread, toast it until nicely crips and golden and rub a garlic clove onto it (like if you were making a bruschetta – that’s brusketta, for whoever did not read my previous post), and put it at the bottom of a bowl. Now, overlay your stew on top of it and enjoy it!

I washed it down with a Chardonnay, again from the Chateau St. Jean cellar (california). I prefered their Cabernet Sauvignon.

Happy New Year to everyone!!!!

tshcuessi

Fred

PS: total cost if the dinner ~ 15 US$

Hi everybody,

just wanted to share yet another boring and simple dish which I cooked yesterday and was lecker und geil. Was a veeery simple beef stew yet, as we know, simple dishes are sometimes the baest ones. That’s why I think that french cuisisne is overrated. Too complicated, too many sauces and ectopic flavors that really mask the true taste of the raw ingredients. But what can you expect from a nation that invented perfumes and wigs

Anyway, here’s my wee stew:

- chop an onion (or two) and a few carrots  and golden them in a pot with some oil, cloves and some bay leaves.

- when nicely soft and colored, but not fried and burnt, throw in your stew meat (I like cubed beef, about half a kilo for a decently sized stew) and let it simmer for a few minutes and add half a glass of red wine, salt and pepper.

- let it cook at low heat for about 15 minutes, add a glass of water and cook for another 30′.

- Now, you should have a nicely colored meat cooking in its own juices and it smells very good. I like to now add some cubed potatoes and cook the whole thing for another 45′. Remember that the longer you cook it, the softer the meat.

- Finally, ten minutes before the whole thing is ready, I add some fesh spinach leaves.

serve as is or with polenta, grits or dark rice on the side.

Enjoy!

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